Tamil Nadu headmistress makes students clean toilets for coming late, gets booked under SC/ST Act

Tiruppur district police on Friday registered a case against a former headmistress of a government school under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Amendment Act 2015 for reportedly abusing Scheduled Caste students and making them clean toilets. According to police sources, the suspect Geetha, the headmistress of Government High School in Iduvai, Coimbatore has been booked under two sections of the said act by the Mangalam police on Friday. 

The case was registered a week after she was placed under suspension by the School Education Department. As per a complaint filed by Saravanakumar, the awareness and monitoring committee member of the Adi Dravidar Welfare Department, Geetha was accused by a few students of abusing them for their caste identity. He also alleged that the headmistress had also forced the students to clean the school toilet for coming late. 

The incident that took place on December 17 was confirmed through an inquiry mooted by the school education department officials. The copy of the First Information Report (FIR) available with TNIE said the Deputy Superintendent of Police (Palladam) O Vetriselvan has been appointed as the investigative officer of this case. Police sources said Geetha was booked under section 3(1)(r) (intentionally insulting or intimidating with intent to humiliate a member of a Scheduled Caste or a Scheduled Tribe in any place within public view) and 3(1)(s) (abusing any member of a Scheduled Caste or a Scheduled Tribe by caste name in any place within public view) of the act. Further investigations are underway.